Mermaid Tail by Cryptic_Eyes, All Rights Reserved, © 2015

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Disclaimer: These characters will be as close to the personalities of the original characters, but some moments will be OOC, to fit the story. I hope you enjoy!

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Hello everyone! I actually didn't think I would be able to update this weekend, but tadaaa, a nice surprise! I dedicate this chapter to BugzBunn, even though I don't know you very well, I really appreciate all the comment you have given me! Thanks so much! Song is "Fight" by All Good Things! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and please comment and vote 'n such! ^^ Thanks so much, and until the next chapter!

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Lucy woke with a pain in the back of her head, her dreams absent last night and unable to take her away from reality's nightmare. Her legs were there there she woke, and her ankles were still sore from Kane's abuse. Her body was stiff, and she yearned to stretch out her legs with a walk, but there was no way she was going to get to do that in her current situation.

There were no guards around, not a sound. Lucy was probably at the very top of the building, since she saw such a wide view of Natantis. She looked at the chains around her wrists and sighed, her mind refreshed but her body weak. It seemed the curse was draining her every passing day, and when the time came when her span ran out, what would happen? Would she lose her tail forever? Or would it be something much worse? The thought pestered Lucy until she realized something else.

Blight would be coming back soon.

Until she could find a way out of there, she needed to defend herself mentally. She needed, just once, to become like her father and have his guarded mind. The blonde could never guess what he was thinking, and she needed to take it to the next level. She would lose her life is she didn't, and she was raised not to give up so easily. If anything, that was one thing Lucy was proud of about herself. She'd die before she'd give up.

A Tracker guard came by with breakfast, and Lucy was surprised by it. She figured that they'd starve her to weaken her mind, and she looked at the bowl suspiciously, but didn't notice any signs of poison. Her father had made her memorize poisons after her mother had died, one of his many overprotective acts. She didn't think, however, that it would ever come in handy.

Well, she hoped it wouldn't.

The thought of Lucy's father made a small pain in her chest grow, but she couldn't afford to think about that now. She needed to steel herself for Blight's arrival, and the food in the bowl the Tracker had given her was going to help her do that by restoring her strength. As she waited for him, Lucy prayed to her mother and now, her father. She asked for the strength to defend herself for as long as it took, for Neptune to look down on her and help her, for a way out of there.

And when she opened her eyes, her pupils lightened just for a moment, as if she had been answered.

"Good afternoon, lass; did ye miss me?" Blight asked, the Tracker shutting the door behind him.

Lucy didn't say anything, only raising her head to give him a nasty look.

"I'll take that as a yes," he replied, chuckling. "I'm very excited to find out what that clue will lead to, especially since it made the sir pleased when I reported it to him previously."

Lucy's blood chilled when she realized he was talking about Kane.

Blight dropped down next to her, rubbing his hands together. "Well, shall we get started, then?"

The blonde naturally leaned away from him, but all he needed to do was touch her in order to invade her mind. He reached over and grabbed her throat, the other Tracker with Blight holding the mergirl down again. And just like that, it began again.

Lucy felt like she'd been punched in the lungs when he entered her mind again, and she buckled over at the force of it. Blight however, kept her upright, immediately slamming her head back against the wall and pinning her against the stones. She coughed, pain blowing through her skull, making things foggy. Because of it, Blight was able to enter her mind like a knife through butter, and she struggled to ignore the pain and try and block him out.

He saw the same memories as he did the day before.

Lucy's mother, her father. Natsu and the others--

No!

Blight's searching slowed slightly, and somewhere far away she heard him gasp next to her.

Don't resist, he ordered, his voice firm.

Pain exploded not only through the blonde's head, but through her whole body. He was manipulating her brain to heighten her sense of pain, tricking it into thinking she was in much more of it than she was. Despite her injured ankles, the pain made her body have a mind of its own, and she kicked wildly while she yelled in agonizing pain. Memories kept going as Blight kept going back farther and farther, closer and closer to the memory Lucy did not want him to see.

Swimming with Plue.

Going out on patrol with her people.

Her mother taking her hand.

The stone--

"I said no!" Lucy screamed, this time out of her mind.

Her figure suddenly brightened, her hair lifting from her shoulders, and Blight was forced from her memories. Both him and the other Tracker were thrown against the bars across the room from the sheer force of Lucy's power, and the Tracker that had held her down fell unconscious. Blight lifted his head, his eyes widening slightly.

Lucy lifted her face, her eyes glowing, her form settling.

"H-How did you...?" Blight began, shocked.

Lucy started to pant, the attack taking quite a bit from her, but the force of her abilities in that moment was shocking to even her. The chains were still attached to her wrist, indicating she was still under strain. But she had just used magic, hadn't she?

"You can't use magic..." Blight was saying, standing. "You have the magic depleters! You couldn't have..."

Lucy looked at her figure glowing, and then she understood.

She looked up at Blight, her figure dimming back to normal. "You may call it magic, but to my people, it is our energy. We use ourselves as the power exchange, not your enhanced abilities." Lucy glared. "Stay out of my head."

Completely shocked, Blight's anger rose, and he marched over to her, grabbing her ankles. "You think you'll keep me out, fish?" he squeezed her ankles, her skin stretching, and pain flared through Lucy. "Try and keep this at bay."

Glowing purple symbols appeared all along Lucy's legs, and with a start, she realized this was the visual representation of the curse he had put on her.

"Don't forget, lass, I gave you this curse..." Blight sneered, looking down at her legs. "...I can make it worse!"

The symbols flared, and the pain was so great Lucy didn't even have enough air to scream. Hunching forward, blood splattered from her mouth, her eyes wide in horror. Blight smirked, watching the blonde writhe around painfully. Finally, waving his hand, he let her breathe. Lucy stopped, her hair clinging to her forehead as she rested her forehead against the coolness of the floor, tears falling from her eyes and onto the stones silently.

"Let that be your punishment for today," Blight finished, turning on his heel and being escorted by the Tracker that had finally came to.

Lucy watched, barely moving her head as her lips curled at his leave, her tears falling across the bridge of her nose now in her head's position. When she heard a door shut, she coughed, sitting up and looking straight up to the ceiling, unable to utter a sound. The light shined on her face, giving her a little relief, but she shook slightly in both her pain and sadness. But she would not falter; no matter how tired she got, she needed to keep Blight out. She couldn't give up now.

For she had been reminded of Natsu, and she had faith that no matter how long it took, he'd rescue her.

As the sun began to dip back down into the sky, Lucy had to use her bound hands to move her body, her legs still numb from the horrible torture Blight had put her through that day. When she made it to the corner and curled in on herself, she flinched when she heard the same door shut, followed by footsteps. She was ashamed at the fear that entered her, not wanting to go through anything like she had again like she did earlier that day.

But it was not Blight, only a guard. She ignored him, her eyes downcast as she wrapped her arms around her legs to try and make herself somehow smaller.

The guard had a bag with him, however, and she glanced up as he rummaged through it. Her eyes widened when he threw a blanket through the bars, the cloth falling to the ground a few paces away from her in a messy bundle. Lucy looked up at the man suspiciously, but she couldn't see his face, and he was already leaving.

Only when the door shut did Lucy scramble for it, relief hitting her as she wrapped it around herself.

The Fairy Tail was back into charted waters within two days thanks to Wendy, who was currently deeply sleeping in her quarters. Levy was standing on the bow and holding Lucy's necklace out, scriptures circling around her arm.

"Natsu, start moving west!" the girl exclaimed, turning to look over her shoulder.

"Right!"

The crew was working hard even though the sun was setting, their wounds completely healed by Wendy and the ship repaired by Gajeel. Steering the ship, Natsu was wearing his scarf and long pirate's coat, the sleeves at his sides and blowing in the wind in tune with his scarf. With his white trousers, red and gold vest, Natsu's right arm was bandaged and ready to go, and all together they looked like the pirates they were. But this time, loyalty and determination shined in their eyes, some looking out over the waves and others preparing for the upcoming battle.

Erza had proposed a plan. Wherever they would find the hideout, Natsu and two others would go with him to take on the Trackers inside their hideout, while she and the others stayed on the ship and attacked from the sea. So currently, Levy was using the necklace as a sort of compass to locate her blonde friend, and the battle would be on as soon as they docked. They had taken down their Fairy Tail flag to disguise themselves, unable to do anything about the name on the side of the ship.

Happy was on Natsu's shoulder, and Plue was in his white wolf form at the pinkette's side. Lily, who belonged to Gajeel, had come out onto the dock with Gajeel for the first time in months, and it struck Natsu that Lucy probably didn't meet the cat during her time with them. Plue was watching the horizon, silent since Lucy had been taken. His ears were drooped, but his size was still large as he reached Natsu's shoulder even when sitting.

"We'll get her back soon, Plue," the captain replied in a low tone, and the shapeshifter whined.

"Look, there's an island!" Elfman exclaimed, pointing ahead.

As they got closer, the necklace began to glow in response to Levy's magic, and the blue-haired navigator's eyes widened.

She turned, jumping up and down. "We've found it!" she squealed. "Lucy's on that island!"

"But that's..." Gray began, and Natsu's eyes widened.

"Natantis." Erza stated, crossing her arms. "How clever."

Natsu's hands tightened on the wooden wheel. "I'm..." his face darkened, his pupils shrinking, "...all fired up!"

Lucy woke the next morning, sunlight hitting her face. The sensation was comforting, but once she remembered what she had in store for herself today, the comfort seemed to drain right out of her body. Sitting up, the blonde looked at her legs, specifically her ankles. The swelling had gone down some, which was good, and she had regained some energy over the night. She tried to stand, to see if she could do that, but the blow Blight had directed at her the day before hadn't helped, and her ankles were still too sore to stand on.

She massaged them slowly, trying to ease the blood flow back into them, one eye shut at the sting she felt as she worked. As she examined them, they didn't seem to be broken, but they were badly bruised. If they had been chained as well, then serious damage could have been done since it could've restricted the swelling. However, they hadn't been, and they were slowly beginning to heal. Tears sprung to her eyes when she dug into a knot in one of the purple-ly areas, but she breathed slowly and continued to work through it with her knuckles.

She continued to do that until the knot seemed to melt away, and she sighed in relief, able to rotate her ankles now at least. The blood was beginning to move through her ankles again, and that was good, because now they would start to heal properly. She just needed to avoid getting them more injured from now on, because it wouldn't take much more strain until they could break, and she needed to be able to run to get out of there.

Lucy wasn't expecting the sudden horrible pain in her legs, but it came as fast as it did when she'd escorted her friends through the Lost Mist. But this time it stayed, getting worse by the minute. To her shock, her tail began to appear, but then it was abruptly turned back into her legs. Lucy fell onto her side, her knees up to her chest as she clutched her legs by the knees in horrible pain, almost as horrible as what Blight had done to her the day before.

What is this pain..? she wondered, her mind hazy from it.

"Ah, so it did work, I see."

Lucy jerked her head up, temporarily forgetting about the pain when she saw Blight on the opposite side of the bars. "W-What?"

He smiled slightly, and it made a chill run down the blonde's spine. "This has happened to you before, has it not?" Lucy didn't answer, but her eyes widened. "My curse gets worse the longer you are under the pain. Very soon, your mermaid side will die out, leaving only your mortal side. Your powers will be gone, yes, but you know for a fact lass that that isn't the only thing that's going to happen you, is it?"

Horror filled Lucy. If her mermaid essence disappeared, she--

"You understand, don't you? You are going to die, Lucy Heartfilia. And very soon. Once you leave this world, I can access your memories and find the Obsidian Stone for my lord."

When Lucy didn't say something in her mortification, he smirked. "When one has a rebellion of the mind, there are consequences."

Lucy sat up, shaking. "H-How are you going to access my memories if I...die...? It won't work!"

"Ah, but it will, ye see. Every living thing with a conscience leaves behind something called an Imprint. Their memories are still fresh in the brain moments after death, and very easy for me to go through them and find what I'm looking for."

Blight gave Lucy a once over, and when their eyes locked, the pain in Lucy's legs got more intense in a sudden rapid rate, causing her to fall forward onto the stone floor with a cry.

"I won't give in..." the blonde murmured, tears leaking from her eyes.

Blight blinked.

Just from that single movement, Lucy screamed, her body feeling like her blood was on fire. She rolled, curled into a ball, onto her side breathless. Blight stopped his assault, and tears fell from Lucy's eyes, the torture she was going through feeling like she really was dying.

"Once the pain gets too severe in the process of your mermaid-self disappearing," Blight began, "you won't feel the pain anymore. You will become numb, and slowly slip away. That is the part I most enjoy."

Lucy laid there, crumpled and in pain as Blight left her there, the sunlight on her skin now seeming like an omen.

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A true horror has been revealed to Lucy, and unless the Trackers are stopped, she will perish there alone! Will Natsu and the others be able to make a comeback?

Find out in Chapter 13: A Fairy Rescue!